From corporate jungle to lifestyle entrepreneur using support teams with Paul Higgins
Virtual Success Show
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Episode breakdown
In this episode, special guest and co-founder of TrackZEN, Paul Higgins, chats with us about his transition from the corporate world to running his own business and how, along the way, he has amassed a team of virtual specialists to help him achieve immense business success. Paul, whose passion is helping business owners slash their work hours whilst exploding their profits, shares with us his strategies and tips for getting outsourcing right, the first time.
- The importance of investing time into recruiting, training and building your systems and processes
- The common challenges faced by business owners when dealing with outsourcing countries
- Paul’s framework for success with virtual teams
- Tips on starting out with a support assistant
Hiring a support assistant doesn’t mean things will just happen—you still need to drive the process as the business owner.
In this episode
00:00 - Introduction
Barbara and Matt open the show with light chat about Sydney’s heatwave before introducing guest Paul Higgins, founder of TrackZEN Club. Barbara highlights Paul’s expertise in outsourcing, systems, and managing teams, then invites him to explain what TrackZEN Club is and why it matters.
01:50 – About Paul Higgins and TrackZEN
Paul Higgins founded TrackZEN Club after struggling with loneliness, focus, and accountability when leaving corporate life. The club provides masterminds, accountability, and a five-step methodology for ex-corporate professionals running businesses who aren’t yet achieving the work-life balance or income they expected. Drawing on his 18 years at Coca-Cola, Paul was already familiar with outsourcing and global talent. After leaving corporate, he found himself overwhelmed with tasks and realized he’d “just bought himself a job.” To solve this, he learned directly from a top Bain outsourcing consultant, which led him to the Philippines to set up his first outsourcing business.
06:03 – Tips and strategies for getting outsourcing right
Paul Higgins explained that his outsourcing choice was guided by three basics: English proficiency, strong customer service culture, and a solid education system—all of which made the Philippines stand out. With his corporate background in due diligence at Coca-Cola and guidance from Bain, he quickly identified the Philippines as the ideal location and was able to find the right suppliers effectively.
08:19 – Challenges faced when dealing with outsourcing countries
Paul Higgins shared that his biggest challenge in outsourcing was distinguishing between providers who could genuinely deliver results versus those who only had a polished “shop front” but lacked substance.
08:56 – Using virtual staff at TrackZEN
Paul Higgins explained that aside from creating content and running his mastermind, nearly all aspects of his business are outsourced, with a core team in the Philippines and additional virtual staff worldwide.
10:06 – The 3 key elements to managing a virtual team
Paul Higgins explained that successful outsourcing depends on three key elements: people, process, and platform. He highlighted the importance of using a strong project management tool, such as Podio, to manage tasks and workflows. Equally important is recruiting and training the right people, since outsourcing requires business owners to learn how to effectively manage remote teams. Finally, he stressed the value of building clear, process-driven systems with task lists, automated workflows, and repeatable tasks to ensure accuracy and consistency. When these three elements align, managing virtual teams becomes far more effective and successful.
11:44 – It’s up to the business owner to get these elements right
Barbara Turley emphasized that recruiting, training, and building processes are the responsibility of the business owner, not the support assistant. She explained that while support assistants can eventually take on more initiative, it’s up to the owner to set the foundation and drive these elements from the start. She noted that many clients mistakenly expect support assistants to create systems on their own, but the real investment lies in the owner setting them up properly. She then highlighted Paul Higgins as an example of doing this well and asked how he manages around fifty outsourced staff and contractors without getting overwhelmed, given that many business owners struggle to even manage one support assistant effectively.
13:28 – Managing a large virtual team
Paul Higgins explained that his support assistant initially handled the “core four” tasks—email, calendar, task, and sales support—which freed up about two hours of his time daily. However, he was still bogged down with supplier management, client work, sales, leadership, and projects. Drawing from his experience at Coca-Cola, he realized that separating project execution from project management led to greater success. He promoted his support assistant to project manager, assigning them supplier coordination and project oversight while he focused on clients, sales, leadership, and strategy. Using software updates instead of long meetings, he streamlined communication and freed himself from day-to-day management. This shift accelerated program launches, increased revenue, and allowed him to expand his team. Barbara Turley then pointed out that while this model works, transitioning a support assistant into a project management role often comes with early challenges like mistakes and miscommunications, which need refining as they grow into the role.
15:43 – The challenges of managing a large virtual team
Paul Higgins explained that when he first promoted his support assistant to project manager, he mistakenly treated them like a high-level executive who could manage everything independently. This led to missed deadlines and unclear priorities. At first, it seemed like the individual was at fault, but he realized the real issue was that he hadn’t provided the right framework to set them up for success. To address this, he trialed the role over three months and introduced a clear structure distinguishing what he, as the business owner, controlled (“above the line”) versus what the project manager controlled (“below the line”). This shift in approach created the foundation for the support assistant to succeed in the role. Barbara and Matt both emphasized how important mindset is in this process, pointing out that many business owners blame the support assistant rather than recognizing their responsibility to create the right setup.
17:14 – Framework for success
Paul Higgins explained that he built a framework to set his project manager up for success. He divided the role into two parts: task management and project management. On the task side, he listed all key tasks in Podio so everything could be accessed in one place instead of across multiple platforms, and he created automated workflows to reduce confusion about what needed to be done next. On the project side, he developed a clear template that included the “why” behind each project, defined success measures, and outlined key deliverables. To keep focus, he limited the number of deliverables to five at a time and reinforced these priorities during weekly WIP meetings. He admitted that building this system took time, but once in place, it created clarity, reduced mistakes, and significantly improved results. Matt Malouf emphasized the lesson of slowing down to speed up—investing the time upfront in proper processes allows a business to move faster later. Barbara Turley added that this is about business owners taking responsibility for ensuring their team’s success rather than simply abdicating tasks. Paul has even created a short online training program based on this system, which has proven highly effective.
21:53 – Paul’s future vision
Paul Higgins shared that his vision is to build the number one community for people leaving corporate to run their own businesses. The community, called Build, Live, Give, is hosted as a private Facebook group and is built around three pillars. “Build” is about creating a successful business, “Live” is about enjoying the lifestyle that motivated many to leave corporate in the first place, and “Give” is about leaving a legacy and contributing to causes, something Paul is personally committed to through funding research for a condition he inherited. He emphasized that the journey is just beginning but invited listeners who resonate with this mission to join the community. Barbara Turley praised the group, saying it already offers great value, before Matt Malouf asked Paul for his top two pieces of advice for anyone starting out with a support assistant.
23:18 – Paul’s top 2 tips on starting out with a support assistant
Paul Higgins advised business owners to avoid reinventing the wheel by learning from those with experience, as this can save years of trial and error. He also stressed the importance of carefully choosing the right partners, since many companies excel at sales but fall short on operations, people development, and processes.
24:00 – Wrapping things up
Barbara Turley thanked Paul Higgins for sharing his insights, noting that while each guest’s story is unique, the core principles for achieving success with virtual teams remain consistent. She encouraged listeners to revisit past episodes, including workshops on setting projects up for success with support assistants, and to access transcriptions for reference. Barbara also invited listeners to subscribe, leave reviews, and suggest future topics, emphasizing the show’s focus on delivering valuable, practical content. The episode closed with thanks and farewells from Barbara, Matt, and Paul.
